Chapter 6: What Does God Want?

God Is with His Family Forever | Meditation on a Book | What Does God Want? Series | Jesus Christ | Christianity

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Introduction | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Summary and Preview | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9

God Is with His Family Forever

That’s the title of Chapter 6 in “What Does God Want?” by Dr. Michael S. Heiser. Before we continue, I want to review a few things.

Recap (Chapters 1-5)

I began this Meditations on a Book series for one reason: Provide some viewpoints that might help Christ followers to share God’s story with others, and so help to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission. My desire came after I wrote a post about Burning Man 2023, and saw reader’s thoughts on sharing God’s good news at this pagan festival. Some of my fellow Christ followers were adamantly against believers going to Burning Man to reach those outside of God’s kingdom. I felt sad and conflicted.

As evening gently fell Friday night with beautiful sunset colors, and I continued thinking about the Burning Man discussions, one thought kept coming to me:

What does God want?

Okay, Holy Spirit. You’ve prompted me before with persistent thoughts. What do you want me to write about?

(Quote from my post that introduces this series.)

God wants His family back, and God the Son sends us into the entire pagan world to help Him get His human family members back.

The book “What Does God Want?” by the late Dr. Michael S. Heiser discusses the three rebellions against Yahweh that contributed to humanity’s spiritual situation over the millennia up to right now. The Ancient Israelite Worldview of God now forms and informs my understanding of God’s story, of our human story, including why there’s so much military conflict in our world.

Not only did humans disobey the Lord, and thus rebel against Him, so did some created and lesser gods (bene elohim) in His heavenly divine council. God eventually “divorced” these rebellious beings from His rule and reign of His covenant people Israel. Consequently, they in their arrogance and pride have ruled the nations of the world as the principalities, the powers, and the authorities that we read about in the New Testament. And, what a great job they’ve done ruling humanity… not.

The most important point to remember is that God created humans in His image, and that He deeply loves us, He cherishes us.
~NOC

Despite our awful disobedience and rebellion (sin) against Him over the millennia, He has never given up on keeping, honoring, His covenant with us. The very good news is that His plan to have His human family back in relationship with Him has been fulfilled through:

• the coming to Earth,

• the ministry,

• the death,

• the resurrection, and

• the ascension of the unique and holy second person of the Trinity, God the Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To review my meditations on Chapters 1-5, feel free to use the links at the top of this post.

Let’s Continue

Chapter 6, “God Is with His Family Forever”, has these three sections:

• The Story’s Exclamation Point

• Everlasting Identity

• Everlasting Partnership

Meditations on Chapter 6

When I read this chapter, and I re-read it a couple of times, I teared up. I grieved over my sin and yet I rejoiced with gratitude for God’s faithful love, His redemption story fulfilled in Jesus, and Abba’s future plans for us.

The Story’s Exclamation Point

I was a literature major in college, and the world’s great epic stories end in a memorable fashion. As Christians, we’ve heard for years that the end of our story is “everlasting life”. That phrase describes time, a time period (forever), and not what’s going to happen during that forever. What’s the end going to be like?

God’s story with His human family began in His creation, the garden of Eden, and it will end with Eden restored, a new Eden! But what does that mean? Please take time to read Revelation chapters 21 and 22. I’ve provided links below if you don’t have your paper or digital Bible handy:

Revelation 21 (ESV)
Select to read the chapter here

and…

Revelation 22 (ESV)
Select to read the chapter here

What glorious descriptions! Yes, heaven and earth will be united again in the new Eden; all things will be made new. Whenever I travel to beautiful places, when a scene in nature makes me say, “That’s drop-dead gorgeous!”, I always follow that with, “But, this is only a taste of what the new Earth will be like.” All corruption will be gone, and we will forever be in the Lord’s presence. And yet, there’s even more to the believer’s future.

Romans 8:19 (NLT)
19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. [ Emphasis mine ]

And, this is where I teared up, unworthy me, as my future unfolded in words that give glory only to God’s great grace.

Everlasting Identity

For many years, I’ve read these words and never allowed myself to “own” them, let them seep deep inside of me.

1 John 3:1-3 (NKJV)
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. [ Emphasis mine ]

Hold the phone. Yes, I’ve read the words “we shall be like Him” many times over the years. God is saying that we Christ followers will be like Jesus when He’s revealed to us at the end of the age.

Have you truly contemplated this?

I am, now. And, this will be our everlasting identity when God finally reunites us with Him in all His glory. “Everlasting life” means… I can barely take it all in… we will be like Jesus, Father God’s ultimate image bearer. We humans, made in God’s image, who have believed in Jesus and submit our entire loyalty only to Him, will be image bearers made perfect. Free from sin and death. Think about that for a moment.

Romans 8:29 (ESV)
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. [Emphasis mine]

And…

Philippians 3:20-21 (NLT)
20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. 21 He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control. [ Emphasis mine ]

When I imagined this, me having a glorious body like Jesus’, I grieved over my sin and thanked Him for His incredible grace and love.

I mean, really. What god, what deity in other religions does this for their followers?

None.

There’s nothing we can do to earn this, and that’s why Jesus came. Out of gratitude for all of these amazing things God give us, and will give us, we live our lives as He asks us to do. He even gives us His Holy Spirit to help us while we “practice” (walk in the Spirit, sanctification) here on Earth. He already knows that one day we will be like Him inside and out.

Oh, but there’s more.

Hebrews 2:10-12 (NLT)
10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 12 He says,

“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;

in the assembly I will sing your praises.” [ Emphasis mine ]

Jesus will proclaim our status as members of God’s family. Without shame, He will praise God in our presence, delighting in our status as His brothers and His sisters.

We will be fully welcomed into God’s family! And, this has always been Yahweh’s deepest desire, from the days of the first Eden. It’s what’s closet to His heart: His human family.

Everlasting Partnership

And, our “everlasting life” will involve us working with our Heavenly Father, our Abba (daddy), in partnership with Him in the new age. This partnership was His plan in the garden of Eden before humans’ disobedience.

What will we do?

We will:

• Receive authority over the nations (Revelation 2:26) We will replace the fallen sons of God, the rebellious bene elohim, who Yahweh “divorced” and allotted to the nations after the Tower of Babel

• Sit with Jesus on His throne (Revelation 3:21) We will rule the nations along side our King Jesus, who is our Elder Brother

• Judge angels (1 Corinthians 6:3) At the end of days, we will judge the fallen sons of God (bene elohim)

In the new Eden, we will work together in a loving and perfect partnership with our siblings: God’s created heavenly (spiritual) family along side His human family.

And best of all, during this current and sad time when we’ve been watching the nations rage against each other, we can comfort ourselves with the truth that one day, when God’s appointed time has come, the Lord will use us to bring God’s peace and love upon the nations…for good and forever. Amen.

Your Turn

Take time to re-read this post, asking the Holy Spirit to reveal what God wants you to focus on and pray over for a season.

Can you take in and fully absorb your forever identity and your forever partnership?

Soli Deo Gloria!

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